Samsung Secure Folder: how to set it up, add photos and hide it

Secure Folder is Samsung's private space on Galaxy phones and tablets: a separate area with its own lock, protected by Samsung Knox, where you can keep photos, files and copies of apps. Here's how to set up Secure Folder, add photos, files and apps, hide it, and lock it, plus the limits to know before you trust it with anything you can't replace.

The steps follow Samsung's own help for One UI 8. On older phones, Secure Folder's settings are under Biometrics and security, and if your phone doesn't support it, Samsung says it won't appear in the menu at all.

What Secure Folder is

Samsung describes Secure Folder as a protected space locked behind its own passcode or biometric lock. What's inside stays separate from the rest of your phone: photos moved into it leave your main Gallery, apps added to it run as separate copies with their own accounts and data, and it can only be opened on the phone itself, not from the web or a computer.

How to set up Secure Folder

1. Open Settings → Security and privacy → More security settings → Secure Folder.
2. Tap Continue, then Continue again to allow the permissions it needs. Sign in to your Samsung account if it asks.
3. Choose a PIN, password or pattern, and follow the steps to set it.
4. When it asks about Reset with Samsung account, tap Allow. Samsung says that without it, you can't get back into Secure Folder if you forget its lock.
5. Tap Next.

Make the lock different from your screen lock, so knowing one doesn't open the other.

How to add photos to Secure Folder

The quickest way is from Gallery or My Files, without opening Secure Folder first:

1. Open Gallery and touch and hold the photos you want to move.
2. Tap More options, then Move to Secure Folder.

They leave your main Gallery and show up in Secure Folder's own Gallery. From inside Secure Folder, you can also tap ⋮, then Add files, and choose images, videos, audio or documents.

How to take photos out again

Open Secure Folder, then its Gallery or My Files. Touch and hold the file, tap More and choose Move out of Secure Folder. Samsung says a file that came from an SD card goes back to your phone's internal storage instead.

How to add apps to Secure Folder

1. Open Secure Folder and tap the plus icon.
2. Tap the app you want and tap Add.

You get a separate copy of the app inside Secure Folder, which you sign in to on its own. Samsung has no other app lock yet, so this is also the built-in way to lock apps on Samsung. To remove an app, touch and hold it inside Secure Folder and tap Uninstall.

How to hide Secure Folder

• From Quick Settings: open the Quick Settings panel and tap the Secure Folder button. The same button brings it back. If it isn't there, add it to the panel.
• From Settings: in Secure Folder's settings, turn off Add Secure Folder to Apps screen.
• In plain sight: tap ⋮, then Customize, to change its name, colour and icon.

Our guide to hiding apps on Samsung covers hiding other apps too.

Lock it, and choose when it locks

• Auto lock Secure Folder, in its settings, sets when it locks itself.
• Lock and exit, in the ⋮ menu, locks it straight away. Samsung says this needs the latest version of One UI 8.
• Encrypt, in the same menu, goes further: Samsung says all apps in Secure Folder and their notifications stop working until you open it and tap Decrypt.
• Fingerprint unlock can be turned on under Lock type, on phones that support it.

After a restart, apps inside Secure Folder wait until you unlock it once, which is why a "Secure Folder locked" notice appears. Our guide to Secure Folder fixes explains that and its other habits.

What to know before you rely on it

• No new backups. Samsung says Secure Folder no longer supports creating backups. It moves to another Galaxy phone only with Smart Switch, as our guide to Secure Folder's missing backup explains.
• The reset depends on your Samsung account. With Reset with Samsung account off, a forgotten lock means removing Secure Folder and everything in it. Here's what to do if you forget it.
• Uninstalling deletes what's inside, unless you choose to move your media files out first.
• Samsung only. Secure Folder exists only on Galaxy phones and tablets. On another phone, here's what to use instead.

For photos, Samsung also has Gallery's Private album, which opens with your screen lock. Our guide to Private album vs Secure Folder compares them, and how to hide photos on Samsung covers every option.

A vault with a backup

Secure Folder is a good place for apps. For photos and videos, the missing backup is the gap that matters most. Hidey is a vault app that fills it: it encrypts each photo and video you hide on your phone, checks the encrypted copy, then deletes the original, and it opens with its own PIN or password, or your fingerprint.

Its backup to a hidden folder in your own Google Drive is free and encrypted before upload, and it restores on any Android phone, Samsung or not. If you forget your PIN, you can reset it through Google after a 24-hour wait, with nothing deleted, so whoever controls your Google account could reset it too, unless you turn on zero-knowledge mode (Pro).